Master No (Masters and Mercenaries, #9)(31)

CHAPTER FIVE



She came awake slowly, well aware she’d slept better than she had in forever. Maybe she’d made a horrible mistake by sleeping alone all this time. Even with Roger, they went their separate ways after sex. It had been years since she’d actually slept beside another human being.

She cuddled close because she wasn’t exactly beside the man. She was mostly on him. One leg had gotten thrown over his and her arm was wrapped around his muscular chest.

“You’re a cuddly thing, aren’t you?”

God, that Southern accent sounded good. Deep and rich, Master T’s voice rumbled from his chest.

“You’re warm, Sir. Apparently Theo and Erin like to keep their house subarctic, but it’s all right because you’re so warm.” He was like a furnace. She’d gotten used to sleeping in the heat. The air conditioner at the clinic and in the small houses for the doctors only worked sporadically.

He shifted slightly, though not away from her. His arm curled around her shoulders, drawing her near. “I’m glad I could help. I suppose I should be happy you’re so cuddly. Otherwise one of us would have ended up on the floor. This bed was not made for a man my size.”

It worked because they’d been plastered together all night. When she’d woken from a bad dream, she hadn’t been alone. The minute she’d startled awake, she’d felt his skin under hers and known she was safe. It made it harder to do the right thing.

“I don’t want to call my dad,” she admitted, her cheek against his chest.

“There’s no reason to,” he replied.

“I don’t want you to get hurt.” There it was. Her deepest fear. That she would make the wrong call and he would pay for it. That she would panic and more lives would be lost. Every one of their faces haunted her, their names stamped on her brain so she never made the same mistake again.

He moved, rolling over so he was on his side, staring her in the eyes. “This is my job, Faith. I’m not some nurse who wants to vaccinate babies and help the helpless.”

“I didn’t say you were.” It was unnerving that he saw so much of her.

“But they’re the ones you’re thinking about. You’re thinking about those nurses and patients who died during your kidnapping. You’re blaming yourself. First of all, it was the kidnapper’s fault. Second, this is a completely different situation.”

“You could still get hurt.” She couldn’t stand the thought. It had been so much easier when he’d simply been a name on a piece of paper.

“You’re not dragging me into something. I’m telling you that I will protect you. I will figure out who’s trying to hurt you and I’ll stop them. I’ll do it without completely disrupting your life.”

His hand came out and ran along her arm, making her shiver. It had been so long since someone touched her in anything but a friendly way. There was intent in Master T’s touch.

“I think attempts on my life are pretty disruptive,” she replied.

“I was talking about your daily life, darlin’. You had plans to spend time with me, to play with me for the next several weeks. That hasn’t changed. We can still do that, but my orders have to do with your safety as well as your pleasure. Don’t call your father in. Everything changes the minute he gets involved. Let me take care of you.”

“Maybe it was a one-time thing. Maybe it won’t happen again.” She was trying to be an optimist.

His hand moved, running down her arm. “Maybe.”

He was looking at her lips. Staring in fact. She couldn’t help but stare back. She’d spent weeks dreaming about him. Those three weeks where they’d talked and flirted and gotten to know each other made it so much easier for her. Despite the fact that she’d basically picked up a man to have an affair with, now it seemed like their relationship was real.

Which it wasn’t.

“Hey, what went through your head right then?” His hand came back, brushing her hair out of the way. “Are you still afraid?”

After the way he’d easily taken down the first guy? Yes. She was, but not for herself. She was afraid for him. And a little afraid of him, but not in a physical way. “This feels different than I thought it would.”

“How so?” His thumb ran across her lower lip.

“I didn’t expect to like you so much. I thought it would be…less personal.”

One side of his mouth curved up in the most arrogant, sexy smirk. “There’s nothing impersonal about this. This feels really personal to me.”

So much of him didn’t add up. She was trying to merge the cold Dom Erin had described with the warm man in front of her, and she had to add in the cool professional who had killed a man and never broken a sweat.

“Do they really call you Master No?”

He chuckled. “Apparently. But you’re not going to call me that. Are you?”

He was right back to staring at her lips. Actually, it was nice to see the horny side of Tennessee. She loved his name. It fit the man. Enigmatic. “Why do they call you that?”

He scooted closer to her, so close their chests almost touched. “Because I don’t play around. Not with women who don’t mean something to me. I have my duties at Sanctum and I fulfill them, but I’m not indulgent with women who don’t belong to me. I tend to be very much the opposite.”